An Analysis of Senile Interaction

Abstract

Although senile dementia is medically defined as physical disorders of the brain, from the sociological perspective, senility is a conception that is socially constructed. I focus on how social members interpret and react when engaged in interaction with those who are putatively senile, and find that their embarrassment and some general epistemological characteristics of human beings are closely connected. This point of view is evident, not only for layman/senile person interactions, but also in caregiver's groups such as the ADRDA where caregiver/patient interactions are interpreted as epistemological balancing styles.